Lucent Technologies' Chief Scientist Arun Netravali to Receive U.S. National Medal of Technology.

Business & Technology Editors

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 2002

President George W. Bush today announced the selection of Arun Netravali, former president of Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs and now chief scientist at Lucent, as one of this year's recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology.

Netravali was cited for his "pioneering contributions that transformed TV from analog to digital, enabling numerous integrated circuits, systems and services in broadcast TV, CATV, DBS, HDTV, and multimedia over the Internet; and for technical expertise and leadership, which have kept Bell Labs at the forefront in communications technology."

The National Medal of Technology recognizes men and women who embody the spirit of American innovation and have advanced the nation's global competitiveness. The medal recognizes groundbreaking contributions that help commercialize technologies, create jobs, improve productivity and stimulate the nation's growth and development. The medal, which is the nation's highest honor for achievement in technology, was established by Congress in 1980 and is administered by the Department of Commerce. The President will present the medals at a ceremony later this year at the White House.

"This honor highlights what we at Lucent have known for many years: that Arun Netravali is a brilliant scientist," commented Lucent Chief Executive Officer Patricia Russo. "His contributions are playing a significant role in today's digital video revolution. He also piloted Bell Labs -- a recipient of the National Medal of Technology in 1985 - through a critical period in its long and distinguished history. As a result, the world continues to depend on Bell Labs today as a leading source of new communications technologies and a veritable cornucopia of scientific breakthroughs."

The compression technology Netravali developed is essential to digital video systems used in cable and network television, high-definition television (HDTV), video telephones, and videoconferencing systems. In addition, his work is the basis for systems that use streaming video over the Internet, Web sites that store compressed video, and multimedia computers.

Cable TV set-top boxes, direct broadcast satellite receivers, and HDTV sets that use the MPEG and HDTV standards rely on Netravali's compression algorithms, which also made communication services such as video conferencing and Internet streaming video an economic reality. Netravali led the development of HDTV technology at Bell Labs in the 1990s, and a video encoder based on Netravali's work is today used by over 150 TV stations for their HDTV broadcasts. In 1997, Netravali received an Engineering Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his work on HDTV.

Netravali served as president of Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies' research and development division, from 1999 to 2001. Under his leadership, Lucent dramatically increased the speed with which it was able to move innovations from lab to market. He now serves as Lucent's chief scientist, working with the academic and investment communities to identify important new networking technologies and advising Lucent's senior management on technical and customer issues.

Netravali is a member of Tau Beta Phi and Sigma Xi, a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. For his scientific achievements, he has received numerous awards, including the Alexander Graham Bell Medal (1991), the Computers & Communications Prize, (1997, NEC, Japan), the Frederik Philips Award from the IEEE (2000), the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) Medal in India (2000), and the Kilby Medal from the IEEE (2001). In 2001, he also received the Padma Bhushan Award from the Indian government, the nation's third-highest civilian honor.

He has authored more than 170 technical papers and co-authored three books: Digital Picture Representation and Compression, (Plenum, 1987), Visual Communications Systems, (IEEE Press, 1989) and Digital Video: An Introduction to MPEG-2, (Chapman and Hall, 1996). He holds more than 70 patents in the areas of computer networks, human interfaces to machines, picture processing and digital video and television.

Netravali was an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has taught graduate courses at City College (N.Y.), Columbia University and Rutgers University. He has served on the editorial board of the IEEE, and is currently an editor of several journals. He serves on the board of a number of organizations.

He received his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India, and master's and doctorate degrees from Rice University in Houston, Texas, all in electrical engineering. He holds an honorary doctorate from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In addition to the nine U.S. Medals of Science laureates affiliated with Bell Labs, Netravali joins the seven previous Bell Labs scientists and engineers as U.S. Medals of Technology laureates: Kenneth Thompson and Dennis Ritchie (1998) for creating the UNIX operating system and C Language; Richard Frenkiel and Joel Engel (1994) for their fundamental contributions to the theory, design and development of cellular mobile communications systems; Amos Joel (1993) for his vision, inventiveness and perseverance in introducing technological advances in telecommunications that have had a major impact on the evolution of the telecommunications industry; W. Lincoln Hawkins (1992) for his invention and contribution to the commercialization of long-lived plastic coatings for communications cable and his leadership in encouraging minorities to pursue science and engineering careers; and John Mayo (1990) for providing the technological foundation for information-age communications and ! for overseeing the conversion of the national switched telephone network from analog to digital-based technology. In 1985, Bell Labs as an organization was honored with the medal for its numerous contributions to modern communications systems. It was the first institution recognized with this honor.

Including this year's laureates, this honor has been bestowed on 120 individuals and 12 companies. More information about the National Medal of Technology can be found at http://www.ta.doc.gov/Medal.

With approximately 16,000 employees in 16 countries, Bell Labs is the leading source of new communications technologies. Bell Labs has generated more than 28,000 patents since 1925 and has played a pivotal role in inventing or perfecting key communications technologies, including transistors, digital networking and signal processing, lasers and fiber-optic communications systems, communications satellites, cellular telephony, electronic switching of calls, touch-tone dialing, and modems. Bell Labs scientists have received six Nobel Prizes in Physics, nine U.S. Medals of Science and eight U.S. Medals of Technology. For more information about Bell Labs, visit its Web site at http://www.bell-labs.com.

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, designs and delivers networks for the world's largest communications service providers. Backed by Bell Labs research and development, Lucent relies on its strengths in mobility, optical, data and voice networking technologies as well as software and services to develop next-generation networks. The company's systems, services and software are designed to help customers quickly deploy and better manage their networks and create new, revenue-generating services that help businesses and consumers. For more information on Lucent Technologies, visit its Web site at http://www.lucent.com.